Prophetic Word for August 2026 – Protecting the Promise

This prophetic word for August 2026 and it is titled Protecting the Promise.

Who is this word for?  Everyone.

I’m convinced that every lesson we need to learn about life and how to handle situations is in the book of Genesis.  It also tells us a lot about God, who He is, and who we are in relation to Him.

He showed me several valuable things in the book of Genesis and I wanted to share this one with you as it relates to protecting the promise.  So imagine this as protecting YOUR promise, because the principles would be the same.

Genesis 17:15-22

¹⁵ God also said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah. ¹⁶ I will bless her and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

¹⁷ Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?” ¹⁸ And Abraham said to God, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!”

¹⁹ Then God said, “Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. ²⁰ And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. ²¹ But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.” ²² When he had finished speaking with Abraham, God went up from him.

 

I feel for Abraham in this moment because understand that the blessing generally goes to the first born and in this scenario that should be Ishmael.

Following the firstborn rule, the Bible should read the God of Abraham, Ishmael and Esau!  But for some reason over and over again, the firstborn was getting skipped.  And it didn’t stop there, when Joseph was blessing his sons he gave the firstborn blessing to Ephraim even though he was younger than Manasseh.

One of the biggest lessons in the book of Genesis is that God can do whatever He wants to do with whomever He chooses!

It feels good to be on the receiving end of that, when it falls in your favor, but what happens when you are the actual firstborn?  What happens when you have an emotional attachment to the actual firstborn but God says that is not a part of his plan?

*When I read the Bible, I always put myself in the story and imagine what it would be like to be that person living that life.

Abraham already had a firstborn, he already bonded with his son because Ishmael was 13 years old at the time.  To add to that, he had him in his old age!  It’s one thing to have a child when you are younger, but if you waited for years and thought you would never have one then you have this one boy. … he was super attached to him. This is why he brought up Ishmael because he was concerned that his son, who he already bonded with, was nowhere in the plan.  Plus, he’s right there!  It is the easiest path to take.

Paraphrasing here…

He just said to him, listen it’s not Ishmael but because I see that you are emotionally connected to him and he is your son, I am going to bless him.  But let me make it ABUNDANTLY CLEAR, he is not the one.  The one has a name, it is Isaac!

GOD named your promise before your promise was even born!

 

Now imagine after this conversation that Abraham has to now look at his son knowing, it’s not gonna be you kid.  God has someone else coming.

Now he has to continue loving him, hanging out with him, knowing that the promise doesn’t rest on him. Sigh.

I’ve read the story many times but this time God had me look at it from this angle.

Question #1 – What do you do when God told you something but you are struggling with it because it goes against your preference?

Now, to seal this covenant there is something that he needs to do, circumcise the boys on the 8th day and all the men in the household. (Genesis 17:9-14). This is what you call a conditional promise.  God promises you something but it will only happen if you do what He tells you to do.

Sometimes the Lord can ask you to do something that doesn’t even look like it is connected to what He promised you, but it is.

What does circumcising the boys and men have to do with Sarah getting pregnant?  It seems unrelated but it is.

She gave birth to Isaac a year later.  Now, imagine that Abraham circumcised all the boys and men when God told him to do it, but he stopped and didn’t continue circumcising them?  THERE WOULD BE NO ISAAC!!  The minute he violates his part of the covenant, there is no covenant!  This is why it is conditional.

Question #2 – Is there something that God has asked you to do and you haven’t done it?  It could very well be connected to your promise even though it seems unrelated.  You need to pray and ask Him to reveal it to you.

 

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Genesis 21:9-14

⁹ But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking, ¹⁰ and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

¹¹ The matter distressed Abraham greatly because it concerned his son. ¹² But God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring  will be reckoned. ¹³ I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”

¹⁴ Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the Desert of Beersheba.

 

If you don’t emotionally disconnect from your preference, at some point it is going to challenge what God said.  You will find yourself justifying your decisions when it comes to PROTECTING YOUR PROMISE because your preference is still lingering in the back of your mind.

You have to choose.

It’s either God’s way, or it is your way.  You need to do what is necessary to protect the promise.

Abraham was emotionally connected to his preference and the truth is he should’ve sent Hagar and Ishmael away as soon as God said the promise was coming through Isaac.  He was holding on for as long as he could to them.  That’s his son!

Do you see that?  Yes, they should’ve been gone the minute he realized how it was going to play out.  BUT, Sarah had to be the one to tell him to choose. His heart was still connected to his firstborn.

Again, think about how pained Abraham must’ve been to cut them off.  The two things cannot coexist, it is either your way or it’s God’s way.

Question #3 – Are emotionally attached to things that are challenging the promise of God on your life?  You need to disconnect from it/them.

This could be what needs to die in the shift.  Until you sever the soul ties that are there, you can’t lay hold of God’s promises.

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Even when something is ordained by God, I believe that He wants to make sure that HE is our everything,  Our whole affection is aligned with Him.  He has our complete heart and nothing else has it.

I believe that is why Abraham was asked to sacrifice Isaac.  God wanted to be sure that Isaac wasn’t coming to take over Abraham’s heart like Ishmael did!  <<<<perhaps you didn’t get that from this story but that is what jumped out to me reading it this time around.  Abraham LOVED Ishmael so much and had to send away his 14 year old son.  His intention was to have the two of them coexisting.  And God had to make sure he understood that this was never to happen.  The Lord also wanted to make sure that Isaac wasn’t an idol.

When you are going through the shift and God starts to kill off things, He’s going to also touch things that you may or may not idolize.  To TEST YOUR HEART and see where you stand with it. But know this, whatever is of the Lord will always remain (even if you gave it up) or be resurrected. (Genesis 22)

In protecting the promise, the next thing Abraham did was to make sure that Isaac was going to marry someone who came from his family line.  This is why he sent the servant to go get Rebekah (Genesis 24).  Meanwhile, Hagar found an Egyptian wife for Ishmael.

In protecting the promise, you have to be sure that you do things correctly surrounding it because it matters to the Lord.

Interestingly, after Sarah died, Abraham did not send to his family for another wife, no, he married Keturah.  Which means she was possibly Canaanite or Egyptian too.  Hmmmm.  Who knows why he did this but one thing was for sure, he had many children with Keturah…Zimran, Jokshan, Medan, Midian, Ishbak and Shuah.

But look at how he handled the situation this time,

⁵ Abraham left everything he owned to Isaac. ⁶ But while he was still living, he gave gifts to the sons of his concubines and sent them away from his son Isaac to the land of the east.

He didn’t need anyone to tell him this time “Hey, you need to protect the promise and send these children away!”  Nope.  He did it because after going up the mountain to sacrifice Isaac and GOD protected the promise??!!!  He had no doubt in his mind there was to be nothing that would be standing in the way of Isaac taking over and inheriting everything.

He didn’t struggle to send the other kids away because he knew he had to protect the promise.

I’m gonna say it to you like this, for some of you:

You are still trying to have God do it your way and not HIs…that needs to die.  Or,

You are still thinking that your way of doing things and God’s way can coexist…..that needs to die.  Or,

You are emotionally attached to some things that you need to cut off because it will destroy the promise.

When Abraham died, the Bible tells us that he was buried by Isaac and Ishmael.  There is no mention of the children of Keturah being there.  This again shows that there was bond and love between Abraham and Ishmael and it was mutual.

Genesis 25:7-18

⁷ Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. ⁸ Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years; and he was gathered to his people. ⁹ His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite, ¹⁰ the field Abraham had bought from the Hittites. There Abraham was buried with his wife Sarah. ¹¹ After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac, who then lived near Beer Lahai Roi.

¹² This is the account of the family line of Abraham’s son Ishmael, whom Sarah’s slave, Hagar the Egyptian, bore to Abraham.

¹³ These are the names of the sons of Ishmael, listed in the order of their birth: Nebaioth the firstborn of Ishmael, Kedar, Adbeel, Mibsam, ¹⁴ Mishma, Dumah,Massa, ¹⁵ Hadad, Tema, Jetur, Naphish and Kedemah. ¹⁶ These were the sons of Ishmael, and these are the names of the twelve tribal rulers according to their settlements and camps. ¹⁷ Ishmael lived a hundred and thirty-seven years. He breathed his last and died, and he was gathered to his people. ¹⁸ His descendants settled in the area from Havilah to Shur, near the eastern border of Egypt, as you go toward Ashur. And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them.

After he buried his father, he left and went back to to the place where he was told he should be.

When you have established the boundaries of what God has said, people will stop questioning it.   Ishmael knew, this was not where he should be and he left heading south which is Egypt.  Keturah’s children were told to leave, and they left going to the east which is Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria.  So that the one that was left in Canaan was Isaac, the promise.  Because that is what God said and Abraham made sure to tell them how it was going to be.  verse 18 says Ishamael’s tribes lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them.  Yep, to this very day!  And this is why God says they can’t coexist with the promise.

Notice that Ishmael didn’t even try to stick around afterwards because he knew where he stood.  The boundaries were clearly defined.

Sometimes the greatest thing you can do is give people clarity by just telling them the truth.  Let them know where they stand.  You can end up doing more damage to people sometimes by “just trying to be nice and not hurt their feelings”

Question #4 – In the areas and places where it is necessary, have you clearly established boundaries? Make sure everyone involved KNOWS where the boundaries are.

So, here is the scripture when God defined the boundaries…

Genesis 17:8

 And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.

And then later on in this same chapter as you read in the beginning of the post is when God tells him that Ishmael is not a part of this it is Isaac.

Here is a map of Canaan (the green area) overlayed by what the countries are today so that you can understand what it looks like now compared to what God said all the way back in Genesis

Now, while we may not like the methods employed to keep Canaan in tact, we cannot, as Christians argue with the word of GOD.

Sigh.

We don’t have to like it, but we cannot say we don’t know what HE said.  Because do you know what happens when you align against His plan?

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The Low Key Sabotage of the Promise

I’ve had instances before when God told me clearly to do something and I really didn’t want to do it, but I did it anyway.

Sometimes it turned out bad because what I thought would happen did happen!  It doesn’t matter, God was probably just testing my level of obedience to see if I would actually do what He says even though my HEART was not in it!

God’s way will not always align with our ways.  However, He’s not going to change His mind because I’m unhappy with it. NOPE!

The best thing for you to do in these scenarios is pray a simple prayer “Lord, you know how I feel about this, please give me the grace to be obedient”.  And, don’t wait to feel it, just go ahead and do it!

Because the CONSEQUENCES of not following through maybe worse than your temporary discomfort for being obedient.

Your entire life could look great to everyone on the outside but then there is that ONE THING, that will never align because of your disobedience.

Question #5 – Is there any areas of disobedience that is causing delays in your promise? Delayed obedience is disobedience.  Ask the Lord to show you.

It’s better if you just admit it to the Lord and ask for help.  The WORST thing you could do, is to begin to sabotage it while pretending like you’re obedient.

We’ll call this one the low key sabotage.  You know, God tells you to do something so you jump to do it immediately because you are obedient, then He asked you to do this other thing you and this is you…

 

All because you don’t want to do it!  And instead of being honest you pretend like you’re obedient when in fact, you are not!

Your heart is not in it, and THAT is why you are not doing it and then we come up with ALL KINDS OF EXCUSES for not doing it ….I was about to do it when….I was planning on doing it but I wanted to finish this first….and sometime we even blame other people for our own disobedience…..I was going to do it but then she did this!  All kinds of excuses.

Sometimes we don’t like what God asked us to do because we don’t like the PERSON!  You would do it if it was someone else, but not that person….

Genesis 38:6-10

⁶ In the course of time, Judah arranged for his firstborn son, Er, to marry a young woman named Tamar. ⁷ But Er was a wicked man in the Lord’s sight, so the Lord took his life. ⁸ Then Judah said to Er’s brother Onan, “Go and marry Tamar, as our law requires of the brother of a man who has died. You must produce an heir for your brother.”

⁹ But Onan was not willing to have a child who would not be his own heir. So whenever he had intercourse with his brother’s wife, he spilled the semen on the ground. This prevented her from having a child who would belong to his brother. ¹⁰ But the Lord considered it evil for Onan to deny a child to his dead brother. So the Lord took Onan’s life, too.

 

Oh me oh my!  Again, the firstborn son is rejected…are we seeing a pattern here? Now imagine standing on the outside looking at this scenario, the first thing most of us would think is that Tamar is cursed!  How is it both of her husband’s died?  Because no one knew WHY????

This first man was wicked to her!  That is why he died.  The second one, was low key sabotaging her!  He thought nobody would know what he was doing.

He probably thought he would play along, then say she can’t get pregnant then go get his own wife and everyone would think that he tried when in fact he did not!  He thought, eventually everyone will forget about Tamar because after all she is just this one woman.

But, GOD!

You know what I love about the Lord?  He never tells anyone your full story!  Even the greatest prophet in the land doesn’t know everything about you.  Who you are is HIDDEN.  Why?

BECAUSE GOD PROTECTS THE PROMISE!

Who is Tamar?  Well, let me start off by saying she did have her sons, Perez and Zerah.  Let me show you the significance of Perez…

Matthew 1

So how in the world was Er and Onan ever going to win when they are up against one of the women in the Messiah???

THEY DIDN’T KNOW!  She wasn’t just some woman!  And, it doesn’t matter if you know or not.  What matters is your obedience to follow through with what God said.  You don’t know the significance of your one act of obedience.

The low key sabotage will never affect THE PROMISE, because God is protecting it!  Instead what happens when we participate in this kind of behavior is that we stir up the wrath of God because it is HIS promise that we are interfering with AND we have consequences because of it.  The person we are doing it to is not affected!  Regardless of how messy the circumstances were, Tamar STILL had her sons.

Notice all the women that are listed in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, had issues!  They were not perfect!  God chose them.

If you don’t like the person, the place, the business, the school, the ministry or the church, voice your concerns to the Lord and leave the Lord to deal with them but you need to do what He told you to do.

We don’t get to walk off a job if we don’t like the boss, did God tell you to leave there?

You don’t get to leave the church if God never told you to leave there, ask first!

You don’t get to decide to stop giving to someone or some place and switch to someone else,  for whatever reason you have decided to do that, did you ask God before you stop giving them the money?

Believe me I know what it feels like to want to leave a place and God has not released me from there! I have to stay until He says I can go! If I take it upon myself to move without permission, the consequences of the misalignment shows up very fast for me!  I have to swiftly reverse course!

Saints, we are in the last days, therefore, we do not have the luxury of being fickle.

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Your promise needs to be protected. It is first God’s promise before it is yours;  therefore, your own preferences take a backseat to what He has said.

Anything that you are emotionally connected to that does not align with the promise needs to go.

You need to have clear boundaries around your promise.

There may be areas of disobedience in your life that are be blocking the fulfillment of the promise.

If in your heart you are not in agreement with the promises of God or what He has told you to do, you need to ask Him to change your heart and give you the grace to obey.  Trying to sabotage it will come with consequences for you.

2 Corinthians 1:20

For as many as are the promises of God, in Christ they are [all answered] “Yes.” So through Him we say our “Amen” to the glory of God.

 

And so now Lord we come into agreement with Your promises by saying, AMEN!

Blessings!